Restaurant review – The Alibi Room (Gastown)
It would be unfair for me to judge The Alibi Room in their dinner mode having not had dinner there for a long, long time. The last time I actually consumed anything there at night, I attended Global Metal with Rebecca, Trevor, Andy and Beth. We only had drinks so that doesn’t really count.
But I did have brunch there very recently with MJ and Dale, for the AIDS Benedict brunch. While I absolutely hate eggs Benedict, I wanted to participate in the event and so I sent out a Twitter invitation. I was very pleased and touched that both MJ and Dale accepted, as we had a really good time. Neither of them had met each other before, and I’m always happy when I help build connections amongst my friends from the Vancouver tech scene.
Both MJ and Dale ordered eggs Benedict while I ordered scrambled eggs with chorizo and toast. As far as the quality of food goes, it was really, really good. I did remember The Alibi Room being this good. The service was a mixed bag. Both our servers were incredibly sweet and nice and they went out of their way in keeping our coffee cups refilled. Both of those elements were highlights.
The very small downside? The servers seemed to struggle to keep up with everyone, and our food took a while to get to our table, but we didn’t mind as we were having a really good time.
My verdict? I will come back to The Alibi Room many, many times. It’s spacious, it’s well designed, it has good food (brunch is good and I remember dinner being good too. I’ll have to come back for that). Service is ok, and more than anything, it’s pretty strategically located. The Vancouver tech community visits The Alibi Room with frequency, and it’s close to my downtown office and to my home (well, if I take the bus anyways).
I’d definitely recommend The Alibi Room for brunch, although frankly, I still do love my Nice Cafe and Crave on Main. In my humble opinion, two of the best brunch places in town.
Related posts:
I’m very fond, indeed, of the Alibi Room. I don’t go as often as I should, given the quality of the food and the location. It must be said, long, communal tables and loud DJ music are not for everyone, but if it’s your scene it’s never better done than at the Alibi room. And the food is ALWAYS good.
As well, the management is very community-oriented and supports local artists and organizations.
Can you tell I’m still feeling guilty about missing brunch? I adore eggs benedict, even more Eggs Haida. Sigh.
[...] made its way over to a self-hosted WordPress solution and one of the first posts by Raul is a review of the Alibi Room in Gastown. He found himself there for breakfast, ordering some delicious scrambled eggs and chorizo sausage. [...]
Invite me again sometime, K? For brunch? I *love* their eggs benedict, although I too remember it as being sloooowww on the service.
I only discovered the existence of the Alibi Room a couple of weeks ago – Boris providing photographic evidence of a collection of Rogue beers on tap there. Since Rogue is probably my favourite brewer within a 1000 mile radius, I will most definitely be paying a visit next time I’m downtown & kicking my heels.
We should do an Alibi Tweetup sometime.
I’ve held an event at the Alibi Room and I have to say that they were awesome! They were super friendly and accommodating with menu planning when I booked them, the food was excellent, we got the whole downstairs to ourselves (with our own bar and bartender) and the minimum purchase we had to make was way lower than all the other places I looked at. Yay Alibi Room!